"cleaning" a soundboard

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technodork

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hello all. i dont know if this is in the right place, but i have just come across an older 12 channel mixer,and the channels sound dirty. i was wondering if anyone knew anthing about "cleaning" one? i read somewhere, that rewiring it fixes 99.8% of it, but im looking for some online help.

thanks in advance
 
Not sure how much rewiring will help...unless there are some bad wires, but internal wires rarely go bad themselves. If anything, their connections might come loose, that's all.

What people do with some older mixers is recap them...but that's a process, and depending on which mixer you have, it may or may not be worth the cost, effort and time.

AFA cleaning...that's easy...well, kinda. :)
Spraying from the top of the mixer into pots and faders is a TOTAL WASTE OF TIME...and you just end up with a big mess.
You have to take it apart...remove all the knobs/buttons, nuts and bolts...remove the metal panel...and then you have a chance to get at the pots/switches and faders.
You need to find the small openings on the pots/switches...and then give them very short/small bursts of deoxidizer/cleaner...and work them.
No need to overspray...you just end up with cleaner running all over everything. The important thing is to get the cleaner INTO the pot, not all over it. That's not easy on some if they are well sealed.
I prefer to use a brush rather than spray. I dip the brush into the cleaner and then work it into the cracks/edges of the pot...some will seep in there, and you won't end up with a mess. Then just "work the pot" a bunch of times back and forth to distribute the cleaner across the contacts.

AFA faders...most need to come apart if they can, and then you **carefully** clean the carbon contact strips. You don't want to hit/bend the actual copper brushes, which may be hard to see...so watch what you are doing!
Also...some faders prefer one cleaner over another.
My advice is call Caig Labs and tell them what brand/model you have...and they will suggest the best cleaning solutions to use.
 
wow, thanks miroslav that was a very informative post. You're a king among men.
 
Just on a side note.
Since I got the Korg stand alone about 10 months ago, I have been using the Echo Mona strictly as a soundcard and the only knob that ever gets turned is the headphone volume control.
I noticed recently that the preamps are all starting to get noisy.
This would be due to oxidation from standing idle.
I've started rotating the knobs from time to time, just to loosen things up again and will expect this to work for me but prevention is much more effective.
Those little satchels (silicon, I think) should never be thrown away.
I'm actually considering taping them to the inside of some of my gear.
 
I don't think the silica packs will do much for oxidation...they mostly keep moisture out, but the air/oxygen will still react with the metal contacts be it wet or dry.
It's just a matter of time...and eventually they all need some exercise and eventually cleaning.

Of course...in very humid climates...it certainly does speed up the corrosion, so anything that slows that down will help.
I keep a bunch of silica packs in my tape cabinet, as moisture can really mess with the coating binder my reel to reel tapes.
 
The cycling from hot to cold is a big factor. Whenever something cools down it forms moisture on it's surface like a glass of ice water.

When I get an old mixer or something like that, I usually open it up and vacuum it out first. I bought these attachments for a regular vacuum cleaner to get in real small places. That's better than just blowing it in with those cans of compressed air. Remove as much dust as you can.

I might use some CRC QD Electronic spray on it (Ace has it), lots, and really flush out all the pc boards and connectors then let it dry.

I finish up with some Deoxit D5 on the plugs and pots. I use a 1/4" burnisher from Markertek on any 1/4" jacks. If the pc boards are corroded I may put a light coating of Deoxit on it very carefully. I use Deoxit with Q-tips too.

Lots of stuff "pronouced dead" can be brought back to life by doing this. It's my standard "do that before you consider any actual repairs" method.
 
where i read said that as the wires get used, they get oxidized, and oxidization on the wires leads to bad sound quality. this soundboard wasnt used for about 3 or 4 years, but worked fine when i started it in september, but now its sounding really fuzzy on almost all of the channels
 
I have never heard of rewiring a mixer like that, I'd more suspect the pots or faders.

If you want to do a 1 min repair, get some spray electronic cleaner, ideally Deoxit but whatever you can get, and spray it in all the jacks and also in all the fader slots while you move the faders up and down. For pots you have to take it apart generally, but faders can be cleaned to a degree from the outside.

Use short little blasts, you don't want to get a lot in there.
 
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